WEBVTT 1 00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:14.039 This email has no name. I think it's a woman, and here's what 2 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:18.879 she writes. I grew up listening to stories about bigfoot or one of my 3 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:25.039 earliest childhood memories involves a bigfoot. I remember bits and pieces of the story 4 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:28.920 myself, but my mother has since filled me in on those parts that are 5 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:32.880 a bit shady for me. I was five years old at the time and 6 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:37.960 we were visiting my grandmother and uncle in Kentucky. My uncle decided to take 7 00:00:37.960 --> 00:00:42.200 me to the playground that was nestled into clearing in the woods, and as 8 00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:47.000 we walked under a canopy of trees, we could hear heavy footsteps following us. 9 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:52.200 The thick vegetation kept us from seeing what it was. Though. We 10 00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:56.200 got to the playground and I got busy playing with some kids. It wasn't 11 00:00:56.240 --> 00:01:00.479 long before a terrible scream started. The other kids turned and ran home the 12 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:03.519 second they heard it, and I didn't know what it was, so I 13 00:01:03.640 --> 00:01:08.120 just stood there. My uncle ran over and grabbed me and started running, 14 00:01:08.519 --> 00:01:14.439 and he didn't stop until we got back to grandma's house. At the time, 15 00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:19.120 my grandmother had two beautiful Dobermans that I loved dearly. My uncle was 16 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:22.920 telling her and my mom what happened at the playground, so they sent me 17 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:26.599 back out to play with the dogs. The backyard was fenced inn but it 18 00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:30.519 butted up to the woods, and I remember being back there playing with the 19 00:01:30.599 --> 00:01:37.200 dogs when I heard something snap in the woods. The trees were moving strangely 20 00:01:37.239 --> 00:01:40.840 in a way I had never seen them do before. And then the dogs 21 00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:45.319 started going crazy. They were running around me and barking and snapping at the 22 00:01:45.439 --> 00:01:49.120 fence, and one of the dogs kept grabbing my arm in its mouth and 23 00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:53.640 it was trying to pull me away, and then I remember a whole section 24 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:57.599 of fence being ripped away. I woke up a few days later in the 25 00:01:57.680 --> 00:02:01.799 hospital. I saw my grandmother a couple of times after that, and I 26 00:02:01.799 --> 00:02:07.560 would always ask her where the dogs went. A tear would well up in 27 00:02:07.640 --> 00:02:10.240 her eye. But neither she nor anyone else would ever tell me what happened 28 00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:15.000 to those dogs. No one seemed to want to talk about them or what 29 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:19.960 happened to them that day. Years later, my mother told me that a 30 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:23.000 large animal that was covered in hair, like a bear, but it stood 31 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:28.759 on two legs like a man, had killed those dogs. She said it 32 00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:32.319 wasn't like any animals she'd ever seen before, but my dad called it a 33 00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:38.520 bigfoot. The doctors told my parents that I had blocked whatever happened that day 34 00:02:38.599 --> 00:02:42.400 from my mind, and that I needed to remember the events on my own. 35 00:02:43.879 --> 00:02:47.560 I'm now forty five years old, and still today I can't unlock what 36 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:53.680 happened in my grandmother's backyard. A few years ago. When I was living 37 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:58.000 in Clarksville, Tennessee, our house backed up to the woods in a neighborhood 38 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:01.680 not too far from the Cumberland River. We had lived there for three years 39 00:03:01.879 --> 00:03:07.759 when strange things started happening. First, the dogs started going missing from the 40 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:13.000 backyards of the houses that backed up to the woods, and then we started 41 00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:17.039 hearing strange noises and seeing strange dark figures in the shadows of the trees. 42 00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:22.879 One evening, my two younger kids were playing with the neighbors little girl in 43 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:27.840 their backyard. They were throwing rocks over the fence and something was throwing them 44 00:03:27.919 --> 00:03:31.360 back. The kids came and told us, but we foolishly thought maybe the 45 00:03:31.400 --> 00:03:37.159 older kids were messing with them. We've been all out in those woods. 46 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:39.960 There isn't much to them, so we didn't think it could be anything else. 47 00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:45.879 At eleven pm. On another night, my older kids and a few 48 00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:49.240 of their friends came in sight in a huff, like they'd been running. 49 00:03:50.039 --> 00:03:53.159 They were coming back from another friend's home, and my son told me they 50 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:58.800 were headed back when they started hearing weird screaming noises, like some kind of 51 00:03:58.879 --> 00:04:03.080 animal they'd never heard before. It scared them, so they started moving faster, 52 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:08.639 and the faster they moved, the faster the screaming noises moved toward them. 53 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:13.319 Only it moved faster than they did. They said. The street lights 54 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:16.839 behind them started turning off where the screaming noises were coming from, which could 55 00:04:16.839 --> 00:04:21.360 have been coincidental, it was still strange, and I told him I'd drive 56 00:04:21.439 --> 00:04:25.560 everyone home from now on, and I warned them not to go out late 57 00:04:25.560 --> 00:04:29.959 at night anymore because of all the weird things that were happening in the neighborhood. 58 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:33.519 A few days after that, as the sun was starting to set, 59 00:04:33.759 --> 00:04:38.240 I told two of my older boys to go put their bikes in the backyard 60 00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:43.240 so they wouldn't get them stolen. A few minutes later, they came inside 61 00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:47.480 screaming, saying that there was something big up against the woods. Well, 62 00:04:47.560 --> 00:04:51.399 naturally, I went out to check on it. Only it wasn't where they 63 00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:57.480 said it was. It was standing at the end of my driveway. Compared 64 00:04:57.519 --> 00:05:01.079 to my neighbors six foot privacy fence, this thing had to be at least 65 00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:04.879 eight feet tall. It had a muscular body, and it was covered in 66 00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:10.480 dark hair, and its hands and feet were huge. It stood there like 67 00:05:10.519 --> 00:05:14.680 a man with a slight stoop, and it was staring at me. I 68 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:17.560 was so shocked that I couldn't move. All I could do was stand there 69 00:05:17.560 --> 00:05:21.560 and stare back at it. After a minute, I heard one of my 70 00:05:21.639 --> 00:05:26.319 sons calling for me. Now. I turned my head away for only a 71 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:30.839 second, and when I looked back, the creature was gone. Apparently I 72 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:34.839 wasn't the only one to notice that something wasn't right. All the men in 73 00:05:34.839 --> 00:05:40.160 the neighborhood, whose houses also backed up to the woods, organized a hunt. 74 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:45.240 They were determined to find whatever was taking their beloved family pets, and 75 00:05:45.319 --> 00:05:49.480 it went on for a week, but they never found anything. A month 76 00:05:49.639 --> 00:05:54.160 later, one of my older sons and three of his friends thought it would 77 00:05:54.160 --> 00:05:58.000 be fun if we had a game of hiding seeking those woods with them looking 78 00:05:58.040 --> 00:06:00.720 for us. Well. It was daring the day, so we all agreed. 79 00:06:01.519 --> 00:06:04.839 My middle son and I decided to hide behind a huge tree that had 80 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:10.199 fallen, but the mosquitoes were eating us alive, so as soon as we 81 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:13.759 saw them pass, we snuck out and we went back to the house to 82 00:06:13.839 --> 00:06:18.040 spray ourselves with bug spray. Two of the boys who were looking for us 83 00:06:18.079 --> 00:06:24.439 the seekers met us there because the mosquitoes were eating them up too. My 84 00:06:24.519 --> 00:06:29.000 son found my stepdaughter and she joined him in looking for us, not realizing 85 00:06:29.079 --> 00:06:32.240 we were all back at the house. We had just decided to go back 86 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:38.160 out to the woods when we heard my stepdaughter screaming, and moments later she 87 00:06:38.279 --> 00:06:41.959 fell out of the woods and she collapsed. She was white as a ghost 88 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:46.120 and clearly and shocked, and we picked her up and took her inside. 89 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:49.399 It was a horrifying few moments as we tried to calm her down and find 90 00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:55.079 out what had happened to my older son. This is one of those moments 91 00:06:55.160 --> 00:07:00.160 that a mother does not want to live through. My neighbor came over along 92 00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:02.439 with two of the other boys. We headed back out to the woods to 93 00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:06.240 find my son, and we had just reached the tree line when we heard 94 00:07:06.319 --> 00:07:12.399 him screaming. Not of nowhere, he ranted us and nearly plowed over us 95 00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:15.319 trying to get away. I had a hard time getting him to calm down 96 00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:19.560 enough to tell us what had happened. He said, he and his sister 97 00:07:19.720 --> 00:07:24.920 thought they saw me and my middle son hiding in a tree, but when 98 00:07:24.920 --> 00:07:30.279 they got closer, a massive, dark, hairy creature stepped out. He 99 00:07:30.360 --> 00:07:33.120 screamed for his sister to run and no matter what she heard, not to 100 00:07:33.160 --> 00:07:38.759 look back, and they both took off running. This thing wasn't running at 101 00:07:38.759 --> 00:07:42.560 all, but it was on them in a few short steps. My son 102 00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:46.600 split off from my stepdaughter and hopes that the creature would chase him. He 103 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:50.120 looked back over his shoulder to see if it worked, but it was gone. 104 00:07:50.959 --> 00:07:55.000 He kept running though, until all of a sudden, a huge limb 105 00:07:55.079 --> 00:07:58.639 swung out from around a tree and hit him in the head. As he 106 00:07:58.759 --> 00:08:03.279 fell, he saw two big feet, and for a moment he felt a 107 00:08:03.360 --> 00:08:07.199 hand on us back, and just like that, it was gone. Well, 108 00:08:07.279 --> 00:08:09.920 my son lay there for a few minutes and then he got up and 109 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:16.319 ran home. Days later, being the curious person that I am, I 110 00:08:16.360 --> 00:08:20.000 went to look for footprints. I found one on a slope. It was 111 00:08:20.040 --> 00:08:26.079 the biggest barefoot print I had ever seen. Both of my feet could fit 112 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:30.040 inside of it. I talked to the owner of that land to see if 113 00:08:30.040 --> 00:08:33.879 he'd ever seen anything strange there. He said he and his friends had bought 114 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:37.759 it when it was farm land, and they eventually sold it off for housing, 115 00:08:37.960 --> 00:08:41.639 but in the years that they owned it, they'd seen a lot of 116 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:45.879 strange things. He asked me to let him know if I ever saw anything 117 00:08:45.919 --> 00:08:50.200 else. He wanted to try and find this thing. He also asked me 118 00:08:50.279 --> 00:08:54.399 not to share my story with the media because he thought it might cause more 119 00:08:54.440 --> 00:09:00.159 harm than good. I'm certain he knew what was in those woods. After 120 00:09:00.279 --> 00:09:03.279 that, there were all kinds of stories from people around that neighborhood, hearing 121 00:09:03.399 --> 00:09:09.559 strange screaming and seeing shadows at night. There was one story of a farmer 122 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:13.399 whose land bordered the river. He saw some people down by the river, 123 00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:16.840 and he realized that they would have had to walk through his crops to get 124 00:09:16.879 --> 00:09:20.080 there. He decided to drive down and let them know that they were on 125 00:09:20.200 --> 00:09:26.000 private property. But once he got there, he realized they weren't people at 126 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:31.159 all. One really large, hairy beast made a screaming noise like he'd never 127 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:35.799 heard before. After that incident, everything went silent. It was like it 128 00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:41.000 had been all a bad dream. Maybe they were just passing through or migrating. 129 00:09:43.240 --> 00:09:46.360 And then two years later, I was driving home from a friend's house 130 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:50.200 late one night when I came on a tall, hairy man beast standing in 131 00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:52.559 the road. At first, I thought I was seeing things, but as 132 00:09:52.600 --> 00:09:58.600 I got closer, it didn't move. I stopped a few feet from it, 133 00:09:58.720 --> 00:10:01.480 and it just stood there, herring at me, like the one had 134 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:07.279 in my driveway years ago. I blinked and it was gone. I haven't 135 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:11.960 had any more encounters since that day. I still drive down that road hoping 136 00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:16.200 to see it one more time, but it hasn't happened yet. The encounters 137 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:20.360 are definitely scary, but I don't think they're out to hurt us. If 138 00:10:20.360 --> 00:10:26.279 they were, I think the human species would be extinct by now. Whoa, 139 00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:31.919 whoa. That's a big statement, man. This woman has had a 140 00:10:31.960 --> 00:10:37.720 lifetime almost of well, it has been a lifetime of bigfoot encounters. Now 141 00:10:37.799 --> 00:10:41.519 that is unreal. It's like I've said this one hundred times. Some people 142 00:10:41.559 --> 00:10:45.519 seem to see these things all the time, and then there's people like me 143 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:48.279 who never even see a track. I don't know. Maybe I'm just not 144 00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:52.200 lucky, but maybe I am lucky. I don't know. It's a very 145 00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:58.159 very good story. I sincerely appreciate the woman who sent it. Thank you 146 00:10:58.279 --> 00:11:03.360 very much. You wrote a great story. I don't know who the persons. 147 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:07.240 I don't know the name of the person who wrote this email. I 148 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:13.039 just have an email address. But this is extremely interesting. It's pretty short, 149 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:16.720 but it's really good. When I was fourteen, I was with some 150 00:11:16.840 --> 00:11:22.440 of my family at an actual haunted house called Saint Auban's Sanatorium in Radford, 151 00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:28.159 Virginia. The place began its life as a Lutheran boys' school, but bullying 152 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:33.639 became such a problem that several of its students took their own lives. With 153 00:11:33.759 --> 00:11:39.600 a reputation like that, the school eventually shut down. In nineteen sixteen. 154 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:43.360 It reopened as a psychiatric infirmary. Although it was supposed to be a better 155 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:50.399 alternative to the other insane asylums, it too developed a bad reputation. There 156 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:56.120 were stories of cruel and inhuman treatment of the patients. The stories were rampant 157 00:11:56.759 --> 00:12:03.240 experiments often left them permanently lead disabled or dead. The staff to patient ratio 158 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:09.200 was outrageous with one staff member for every one hundred and thirty five patients. 159 00:12:09.159 --> 00:12:13.320 Divide that into three shifts with days off, and the number gets a lot 160 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:18.679 closer to four hundred. In the nineteen nineties, the place was shut down, 161 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:24.799 and today it's considered one of the most haunted places in the Eastern United 162 00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:28.600 States. And for the price of admission, you two can experience the other 163 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:35.080 worldly happenings inside its walls. Now can you blame me for being too scared 164 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:39.440 to go inside? My uncle, who worked security there, stayed outside to 165 00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:43.799 keep me company while everyone else went in. We walked around and talked until 166 00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:48.399 he got a call to go do a walk through. While I was standing 167 00:12:48.440 --> 00:12:52.120 at the ticket booth waiting for my uncle to come back, this guy with 168 00:12:52.159 --> 00:12:56.200 a pale face and dark eyes walked up to me and tapped me on the 169 00:12:56.279 --> 00:13:01.559 shoulder. I guess he was about five foot ten, and he was dressed 170 00:13:01.559 --> 00:13:05.919 in a uniform like the inmates of the asylum would have worn. Do you 171 00:13:05.960 --> 00:13:09.799 know where the bathroom is? He asked? What. I told him, 172 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:13.600 no, that I had never been inside. He stood there for a second, 173 00:13:13.720 --> 00:13:18.240 staring at me, and then he turned and silently walked away. I 174 00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:22.840 assumed he was an actor hired to add to the creepy factor of the haunted 175 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:26.120 house. I never gave him another thought. But a few days later we 176 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:31.600 were all together again, and everyone who went inside was showing off the pictures 177 00:13:31.639 --> 00:13:37.080 that they had taken and talking about the suicide bathroom. It was the place 178 00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:41.000 where the students of the Lutheran's boys' schools would go to commit their final act. 179 00:13:41.799 --> 00:13:46.120 Someone had taken a photograph of a wall of pictures showing the people who 180 00:13:46.120 --> 00:13:50.879 had died in that bathroom. And right there, as clear as he was 181 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:56.000 when he tapped me on the shoulder, was the guy who asked me where 182 00:13:56.000 --> 00:14:01.840 the bathroom was. Almost a decade it still haunts me now. I can't 183 00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:07.360 help but wonder if the person he'd asked that question of while he was living 184 00:14:07.639 --> 00:14:11.960 had given him the same answer that I did, would it have given him 185 00:14:11.960 --> 00:14:16.919 time to think about it, maybe make a better choice. WHOA, that's 186 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:20.480 a spooky ghost story. That's a man, that is a that's a short, 187 00:14:20.639 --> 00:14:24.159 little, great little ghost story. I love that. Thanks for the 188 00:14:24.840 --> 00:14:28.399 thanks for the sent Thanks for writing it. To the person who sent it, 189 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:35.519 I really appreciate it. Here is a skunk Ape story and the writer, 190 00:14:37.039 --> 00:14:39.320 Oh, she didn't say whether I can use her name, so I 191 00:14:39.399 --> 00:14:43.240 won't. I won't say it. My great aunt and uncle had a camp 192 00:14:43.279 --> 00:14:46.519 on the Louisiana side of the Sabine River. Next to them was an old 193 00:14:46.559 --> 00:14:50.759 couple who had a bait house and they had docks. The old couple had 194 00:14:50.759 --> 00:14:56.480 lived there for over sixty years, and although they'd raised their six children in 195 00:14:56.559 --> 00:15:00.679 that house on the river, they'd both been raised in the Honey and Swamp 196 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:05.360 area, just a short way down the coast. When my grandparents came to 197 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:09.480 visit, we'd always head out to my aunt and uncle's camp. Between my 198 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:13.720 aunts and uncles who were still at home, my great aunt and my uncle's 199 00:15:13.799 --> 00:15:18.519 kids, and me and my siblings were the fourteen of us kids and sixteen 200 00:15:18.559 --> 00:15:22.080 adults. Although we were never allowed to swim because of the gators and the 201 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:26.360 guars, we spent a lot of time fishing on their floating dock made from 202 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:33.519 barrels lashed together. The five teenage boys took an aluminum boat out to fish. 203 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:37.080 Late one evening. They headed up river into some of the slews, 204 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:41.960 and using nothing but cane poles, caught a twelve foot alligator gar. The 205 00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:48.279 women set about cleaning and cooking a mess of fried garballs and fried gar patties 206 00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:52.320 with smothered onions and potatoes, and we ate like hungry hogs, and we 207 00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:58.480 never asked again why we couldn't swim in the river. There was an old 208 00:15:58.519 --> 00:16:03.440 homestead that had been to droyed by a hurricane decades before I was ever born, 209 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:07.159 and it was used as a garbage dump. We'd go there with the 210 00:16:07.240 --> 00:16:11.759 women in dick for bottles and other treasures in the ashes of the burnt trash. 211 00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:18.320 Early one afternoon, we suddenly heard a horrible, indescribable screaming and growl 212 00:16:18.440 --> 00:16:22.720 that was maybe a half a mile away from us. My great aunt stopped 213 00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:26.360 what she was doing and immediately began to demand that we all head back to 214 00:16:26.440 --> 00:16:30.840 the house. She spoke with enough urgency that we obeyed. It was six 215 00:16:30.919 --> 00:16:36.440 hundred feet through the sand and salt grass and another six hundred feet down the 216 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:41.279 shell road to the house. The whole way we asked her what had made 217 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:45.000 that noise, but she never said a word. Once we got back to 218 00:16:45.080 --> 00:16:48.480 the house, her only answer was that she didn't know what it was, 219 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:53.279 and she didn't want to find out That evening was like any other. The 220 00:16:53.320 --> 00:16:59.360 adults sat around the kitchen table playing Penny Anny poker, while we kids did 221 00:16:59.360 --> 00:17:04.279 what we kid did before technology and cell phones stole that from society. Some 222 00:17:04.359 --> 00:17:10.640 of us were coloring and coloring books, while others read books or magazines, 223 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:15.640 and by midnight we were all in bed. The floor was a wall to 224 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:19.279 wall pallette of kids and dogs sleeping peacefully under a gentle breeze pulled in through 225 00:17:19.279 --> 00:17:23.640 the open windows by a large attic fan, and the adults had their own 226 00:17:23.759 --> 00:17:27.799 rooms. At some point in the night, I had to get up and 227 00:17:27.880 --> 00:17:33.599 answer nature's call, and afterward I climbed back into my sleeping bag, and 228 00:17:33.640 --> 00:17:38.559 I was almost asleep when that gentle breeze suddenly carried in the most nauseating smell 229 00:17:38.599 --> 00:17:44.519 I could imagine. I set up and loudly says, what is that smell? 230 00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:48.240 It's burning my eyes. I can't breathe well. My voice carried well 231 00:17:48.279 --> 00:17:52.960 throughout that old house. I wouldn't have been surprised if that elderly couple next 232 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:56.559 door had heard me. While I was twelve years old at the time, 233 00:17:56.759 --> 00:18:00.720 and I had reached that age where whippings and scare me so much, anymore. 234 00:18:03.039 --> 00:18:06.720 The smell that was being pulled in through the open windows by that big 235 00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:11.759 attic fan began to intensify, and adults began to shout for us kids to 236 00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:15.799 get up and shut the windows. Someone yelled to turn off that fan. 237 00:18:17.119 --> 00:18:22.559 Teenagers started jumping up and slapping the old fashioned wooden sash windows down so fast 238 00:18:22.599 --> 00:18:26.799 and hard that it was a wonder that no one broke class. And then 239 00:18:26.839 --> 00:18:30.440 they sent us back to bed, but the adults stayed up, drinking coffee 240 00:18:30.440 --> 00:18:36.480 and talking quietly until daylight. And when the women started breakfast, the men 241 00:18:36.559 --> 00:18:40.839 went outside to look around. We kids were all told not to go any 242 00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:45.400 further than the area around our camp, the bait camp next door, or 243 00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:48.880 the dot. The men went over to talk to the old couple. They 244 00:18:48.920 --> 00:18:52.759 owned all the land for a mile around the two river houses, and when 245 00:18:52.799 --> 00:18:57.920 the men came back, they sent all the kids outside. I guess thirty 246 00:18:57.960 --> 00:19:02.759 minutes later they called us back in and ordered us to help load up our 247 00:19:02.759 --> 00:19:08.000 cars we were leaving. It seems the skunk apes in the area had been 248 00:19:08.039 --> 00:19:12.640 attracted to the extra people and the food smells created by our small army. 249 00:19:14.400 --> 00:19:18.880 They were known to take children if they could and the older couple told the 250 00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:22.880 men that it had happened in the past, and the couple also said that 251 00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:27.000 they had seen these things and had dealt regularly with their behavior for decades. 252 00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:33.319 The live bait vats and the sheds were rated, and various objects left outside 253 00:19:33.319 --> 00:19:38.119 were destroyed. They would wake up to find their small garden ransacked, and 254 00:19:38.200 --> 00:19:42.799 all the vegetables smashed or half eaten are gone, And then there was that 255 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:48.519 smell. It was like nothing else they could describe. In the five years 256 00:19:48.559 --> 00:19:52.039 that my uncle had the lease on the count, the older couple had never 257 00:19:52.119 --> 00:19:57.240 once mentioned the skunk apes. He maintained the old house and did any repairs 258 00:19:57.279 --> 00:20:00.920 the older couple needed. He was a good renter, so I guess they 259 00:20:00.920 --> 00:20:06.359 didn't want to lose him. The next year he leased the cabin elsewhere. 260 00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:11.400 Even then in the new cabin on a pumping plant canal, surrounded by other 261 00:20:11.519 --> 00:20:17.200 cabins with a little general store where we could buy sodas and listen to the 262 00:20:17.319 --> 00:20:22.920 music from the jukebox through the outside speakers. I heard that scream one evening. 263 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:26.880 I shivered in the warm night air, and I hoped it stayed on 264 00:20:26.920 --> 00:20:33.640 the Louisiana side of the River excellent, excellent swamp ape skunk ape story. 265 00:20:34.359 --> 00:20:41.160 Oh, this podcast has had three really really good stories. You guys are 266 00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:44.880 doing such a good job with your story said, I can't tell you how 267 00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:48.480 much I appreciate all the people who's sending these in. It may take me 268 00:20:48.519 --> 00:20:51.440 a while to get to him, but I will get to him. Man. 269 00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:56.839 I really enjoyed doing this podcast and I just love this stuff anyway, 270 00:20:56.920 --> 00:20:59.880 Thank you all for sending the stories, and thank you all for joining me 271 00:20:59.920 --> 00:21:03.200 on this podcast, and I hope that you will join me on the next 272 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:07.640 one. How yack yet? All Right, you guys have a good week 273 00:21:07.799 --> 00:21:08.559 and we'll see you on the next one. Thanks.